Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Wow, yesterday

The stock market and grain market took it on the chin! Uncertainty abounds!

The "stimulus soup" Budde mentioned to me made him and a lot of others queasy!

I haven't taken the time to check what is going on today, a little afraid to.

I can tell you what happened to the grain markets yesterday:

CBOT CHANGE

CORN - 14.00 CENTS

BEANS - 52.50 CENTS

WHEAT - 20.00 CENTS

Yes, that is minus 52.5 cents on beans! Ouch! They must be fearing record acres of beans already and we don't even have our seed yet!

My local fall 09 high bid was $9.70 and now they are $8.11. That is several dollars on not too many acres!

Another reader follows gold and sent me this:"Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Gold demand rose 26 percent in the fourth quarter as investors bought the precious metal as a store of value amid a worsening global economy, the producer-funded World Gold Council said.

Demand rose to 1,036.5 metric tons from 821.8 tons a year earlier, the London-based council said today in a report. So-called identifiable investment, which includes purchases through exchange-traded funds and of bars and coins, almost tripled to 399 tons. Jewelry and industrial consumption fell as the recession eroded purchasing power. Supply rose 5 percent.

“The biggest gain has been the retail investment side,” Rozanna Wozniak, the council’s investment research manager, said in an interview. “It’s a reflection of uncertainty. Gold’s role of a safe haven is coming through.”

Investors are seeking to protect their wealth with physical gold as the global economy worsens and central banks spend trillions of dollars to combat the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Assets in three of the industry’s largest exchange-traded funds are at all-time highs, while national mints are selling out of coins.

Bullion averaged $798.84 an ounce in the fourth quarter, compared with $789.31 a year earlier. The metal reached a seven- month high of $974.32 an ounce today and traded at $963.93 by 11 a.m. in London. Gold, which has gained in each of the past eight years, is up 9.3 percent this year."

The eastern European financial markets are the news and have investors REALLY thinking and guessing(from NewAgTalk)

"i really think the @##$ might hit the fan very very soon. king dollar rolling... someone wants out of everything overseas before someone defaults."